Saturday, September 4, 2010

damn, I'm fast...

9-4-10

According to my Garmin, I did 16 miles at an average speed of 65 mph today, which might explain why my feet hurt.

I had GPS issues today; part of it due to where I was walking and the Garmin not being able to keep track of me all the time, and part of it due to me forgetting to pause it when I wasn't actually walking.

Like, when I was driving. Duh.

I decided to walk the nearby Factory Outlet stores today; I got there about half an hour before they opened, and people were slow to show up, so for my first two hours it was nice. I didn't have to dodge anyone or smell anyone's cigarette smoke or body funk. I was walking at a pretty good clip, but the Garmin kept losing the signal, so I have to go by time on that part of it. I was going at about a 19 minute mile pace, so I figure for those 2 hours I did 6 miles.

I went across the street to the other half of the Outlet after that, and the Garmin was able to find me. Four miles there, then I decided to get in the car and head towards home for the final 8 miles. When I got to the McD's parking lot--lunch frst--I realized I hadn't paused the GPS, and it had me smokin'...

The rest? Totally uneventful, other than the creepy guy on the bicycle who seemed to be (possibly not) following me. I noticed him when I was over by the big park; he'd pedal a little ahead of me, then stop and get off to fiddle with his chain. I'd cross the street to have distance between us, he'd pedal ahead and have more bike issues, I'd cross the street... on and on until I was on a well traveled street and there were lots of other people around. Oddly enough, I didn't see him after that. Go figure.

Do I know for sure he had ill intentions? Nope, but I trust my gut, and my gut told me to cross the freaking street every time he stopped to "fix" his chain (always on the side of the street I was waking on) and my gut told me to get where there were lots of people. The Gift of Fear, people...it's not just a book.

I used that as an excuse to stop for a few minutes for frozen yogurt, then finished the last 3 miles in the same small area, near McD's where the car was parked and where there were people. Just in case.

After I got home the Spouse Thingy peeled the solar cover off the pool and I floated for a while, and then he went to get me pizza.

Not a bad day :)

The key for me is, though, that while my feet hurt and I had a couple miles of an uncooperative hip, today's 18 wasn't bad at all. I'm not wiped out. And I'm not dreading tomorrow's 15. I just have to decide where I want to walk.